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CHAPTER THREE
I was burning up.
Cool hands brushed along my forehead, smoothing the hair from my brow. I stared up into whiskey-colored eyes. Her mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear the words over the rushing sound in my ears.
My skin felt as if flames licked along it and burrowed into my veins. Though I fought for control, I was delirious. Aurora being at my side was proof of that.
“Master, you must drink,” Titus murmured, and the vision of Aurora dissipated. He lifted my head and held a cup to my lips. The bitter brew was horrendous, and he’d been waking me periodically to ingest it.
“Gods, Titus,” I choked out, and I pushed the vile concoction away. When I did, I saw my veins under the surface of my usually tanned skin. It was like looking at a map, with the roads drawn out in hazy black. In a way, I resembled my marble floors.
“Haidyn isn’t back yet, is he?” I softly inquired.
Titus’s gaze dropped and he didn’t reply.
“Who would’ve thought I’d be taken down by a supposedly extinct creature? I must be slipping, eh?” I tried to make light of the situation, though I was truly pissed at my carelessness. Blankly, I stared up at the ceiling and did my best to ignore the sweat running down the sides of my face and the agony within me.
The passage of time eluded me as I slipped in and out of consciousness. I continued to drink the shit Titus poured down my throat, but by then I knew we were merely prolonging the inevitable.
Suddenly, the door burst open. My mind told me to get up and grab my sword, but I couldn’t lift a hand. There was a dull thud, but I couldn’t summon the energy to see what had happened.
“He lives,” Titus answered what I imagined was Haidyn’s unspoken question.
A strange crackling sensation split the air, and I forced my heavy lids to peel back. I gazed up into ice-blue eyes set in a pale face, surrounded by a halo of light red hair.
She swallowed with difficulty, then glanced at Haidyn and Titus. “If I do this, no one must know. It would mean my death,” she said in a raspy tone.
Haidyn rested a hand on her small shoulder as he gravely stared at her. “I would never risk your safety.”
“You risk it by bringing me here and even asking this of me,” she furiously whispered.
“I think we’ve—” but he got nothing further out of his mouth before she slapped an ivory-colored hand over it.
“You bring a witch to my home?” I incredulously asked Haidyn through parched lips. The werewolf’s toxins were burning me up from the inside out.
“Octavia is trustworthy,” Haidyn insisted.
“Her kind hate us,” I spat, my voice cracking due to the dryness in my throat.
“She has agreed to help you. But you need to be able to burn the body of the debt you collected,” Haidyn murmured, and I knew he truly thought the myth was a possibility.
“You think this witch of yours can save me using my essence from the ash,” I said, shocked that he would attempt that. After all, witches were one of our mortal enemies. Unless they practiced dark magic, that is. But this pure-as-driven-snow-looking witch was no dark witch.
“Can you burn the body?” Haidyn repeated.
Closing my eyes briefly, I sighed. Then I slowly rolled my head to face the dead heap on the floor. I recognized the body of the man I’d dispatched to Hades earlier. “I honestly don’t know.”
“Try,” Haidyn encouraged.
Focusing, I stared at the body. I tried to snap my fingers, but nothing happened. Several failed attempts had me dropping my head to the table with a thump. Breath huffing, I winced at the exertion.
“You have to try again,” Haidyn vehemently insisted as he leaned over me and clutched my hand in his.
“Haidyn, we need to accept that this is it.” Hand trembling, I released his grip and fought to remove my signet ring.
“What are you doing?” Haidyn asked as he watched me with a frown.
“As my second in command, all my duties and power will pass to you,” I explained as though speaking to a small child.
